Tuesday, June 16, 2009

More False History -- Sandra Mackey invents a never-was fake history of British help for the Jews in Israel

There is a genre of romantic novel that is called "trashy." There is also a genre of dishonest book writing about the Middle East, and Israel in particular, that very much deserves to be called trashy. Sandra Mackey's latest crime against the trees fits that description.Here is one of her big lies:

The Zionist organizations, creatures of the West and largely funded by Western Jews, quickly established themselves as the favored elite of the British mandate. [Sandra Mackey, Mirror of the Arab World (New York: Norton 2008), pp 78-79]

There are two big lies in that one sentence. First, the Zionist organizations were founded, created, organized, and led by Jews, many if not most of them from the Russian Empire, although Theodore Herzl was a native of Budapest whose grandfather came from a suburb of Belgrade where he heard the sermons of Rabbi Alkalai. Hardly the West. The Zionist organizations were not created by the West. Nor were they created by the Russian state, which did want to get of its Jewish population one way or the other.

Second, the old Arab upper crust were the favored elite of the British mandatory government, next to the British themselves of course. There is the notorious fact that the chief social salon of the highest ranking British officials in the country was the home of Katy Antonius, widow of George [here & here]. A more reliable historical account than that of Mackey, based on knowledge rather than prejudice, tells us that Katy Antonius'

celebrated salon. . . [was] frequented by British officials, Arab notables and intellectuals, and occasional non-Zionist Jews. [Bernard Wasserstein, The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict, 1917-1929 (London: Royal Historical Society 1978), p 186]

One of the more noteworthy visitors to Katy's salon was one Evelyn Barker, the high commander of British occupation forces in Israel [1946-1947]. Since Israeli forces captured files from the Antonius home during the War of Independence, we know that General Barker and the good widow were amorously attached and exchanged Judeophobic billets doux [ici]. One of his billets-doux offered his military expertise to the Arabs against the Jews:

British commander, Evelyn Barker. . . wrote in Dec. 1947 to his Arab mistress Katy Antonius, offering his services to the Arabs: "As a military man he had no doubt: the Jews would not be able to withstand the force of the entire Arab world, and in the end they would all be eradicated. They (the Arabs) had to unite, to be more cunning, to work according to a plan. He would willingly fight at their side in order to exterminate Zionism, he reiterated." [quoted by Peter Lubin, here]

In retaliation for a Jewish underground attack,

Lieut.-General Sir Evelyn Barker issued an order forbidding British troops in Palestine from buying in Jewish shops. He added the sarcastic comment that the boycott would punish "the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any and where it would hurt them most; by striking at their pockets and showing contempt for them." [from Theodore Huebner & Carl Hermann Voss, This Is Israel (New York: Philosophical Library 1956), p 89]

When Katie's husband George was still alive in the 1930s, one of his friends and admirers was Thomas Hodgkin, private secretary to the High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope. This doesn't much sound like the Jews being "the favored elite of the British mandate," as Mackey would have it.

Getting away from George and Katie Antonius, here's another vignette of British "favoritism" for the Zionists:

Chief Secretary for Palestine, Sir Henry Gurney. . . blandly told Golda (Meir) Meyerson, "You know, Mrs. Meyerson, if Hitler persecuted Jews, there must be some reason for it." He was puzzled that she took offense. And he described one Jewish attack thus: "(Bergen) Belsen 'pales' besides the bestialities of (the Jewish attack at) Deir Yassin." He also threatened Ben-Gurion: "If the fighting in Jaffa did not cease, the RAF would bomb Tel Aviv." [Peter Lubin, ibid, link above]

It's curious that Gurney's gross distortions of history and experience are still going on. Gaza is compared to the Warsaw Ghetto. Palestinian Arabs are the "new Jews," etc. Only a deeply Judeophobic mind can produce garbage like that, both in Gurney's time and now.

While correcting Sandra Mackey's lies, let's not forget that the Arab Legion of Transjordan [now Jordan], was the most effective Arab military force in Israel's War of Independence. It was British-trained and most higher officers were British. The commander was General Sir John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha.

It's remarkable how such drivel as Mackey wrote gets published. By the way, her book is on sale in the bookstore of the Sackler-Freer Gallery in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Museum complex. This is a US Government institution.

About

The world swims in lies. Who doesn't know that? Even the dupes are told there are lies about. We aim to dispel the fog of lies, especially about Israel, like our prophets of old and our poets like Yehudah haLevi.
We feature historic sources, documents, excerpts from the classics, etc.
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, While yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
The false prophets cry Peace, and there is no peace.
A new post every 2 or 3 days.

About Me

צלום דבורה בת יהודה לייב ז''ל
Dvoyreh bas Yehudah Leyb, Eliyahu's mother. My own photo will have to await more peaceful times.
I have been an observer of
the human comedy, and the human tragedy for many years.